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Coach Yebra is currently the boys basketball coach at Nikki Rowe High School.

956sports.com: 

Aaron Ramirez (AR): It’s an awesome feeling.  Not too many people can say that they’ve done that.

956sports.com: you haven’t been to the final four since your freshman year.  Is that something that weighs on you?

AR: It’s definitely something thats been sitting in the back of my head.  My teammates and I have put in so much work to make it back and this year I feel as if we have something special and so do my teammates.

956sports.com: Most teams up in San Antonio view today as “Valley Week,” an easy game.  Do you think Hallettsville is overlooking you guys or do you think they’re scared?

AR: I think that’s what’s going through their head because they knocked us out the past two years, but we are here to play.  And we’re ready to play our hearts out and leave it all on the court.

956sports.com: Do you think you’ll win tonight if you stay out of foul trouble?

AR: I have a lot of faith in my team to be able to pull out the win without me, but if I’m on the court I’d be a big help.  So yeah, I think we will win if we are all in the game.

956sports.com: So what are the predictions tonight?

AR: We are coming out with the win and moving on to the next one.

aaron ramirez santa rosa

The Warriors (22-8) take on Skidmore-Tynan in a Class 2A regional quarterfinal on Tuesday at Texas A&M University-Kingsville. Joe Bowling leads our broadcast starting at 7:25 pm.

Special to 956sports.com

KINGSVILLE – There was nothing foreign to Santa Rosa about its Class 2A regional quarterfinal against Skidmore Tynan on Tuesday night. The Warriors have been down this road before.

Now comes the hard part.

Senior guard Rudy Zamarripa scored 20 points, Aaron Ramirez added 18 and Santa Rosa took care of business during a 61-48 victory over the Bobcats at the Steinke Physical Education Center at Texas A&M-Kingsville. The Warriors clinched a fourth straight appearance at the Region IV tournament, where they’ll face Hallettsville, who’s eliminated Santa Rosa the past two seasons, this weekend in Seguin.

“It feels awesome,” Ramirez said. “Going there all four years is something not many people can say. I’m just glad we did it and I couldn’t have done it without my teammates.”

And vice-versa.

Ramirez, who sat an extended period in the second half after getting into foul trouble, was key in helping the Warriors avoid what would have been a monumental collapse in the fourth quarter. The Bobcats took advantage of Ramirez’s absence and slowly chipped away at their 19-point deficit, their largest of the game, to get within five with 5:12 remaining.

Santa Rosa (23-8) had built a 44-25 lead with 5:28 remaining in the third quarter, which was part of a 9-0 run to begin the second half, but Skidmore Tynan went on an 18-4 run before Ramirez took over. The 6-4 senior post scored five points and had two assists during the Warriors’ closing 13-5 run.

“There was a lot of frustration because I knew we could do better,” Ramirez said of his team’s second-half lapse. “They should have never caught up, but it’s just the way the game is played.”

Ramirez was probably right.

The Warriors’ defensive pressure forced the Bobcats, who committed 23 turnovers, into bad shots and allowed Santa Rosa to build large leads in the second and third quarters. The Bobcats used 9-0 spurts in both periods that forced Skidmore Tynan to play catch up.

Cipriano, whose main emphasis has been defense, says his team’s defensive intensity “could have been better.”

“We allowed some things that we shouldn’t allow,” Cipriano said. “I know we can shoot and we can do other stuff. I tell them, ‘It doesn’t matter how many points you can score. If you can’t stop the other team, it does you no good.’”

On Tuesday, however, it did them good. Though, it was just another win to Santa Rosa, the lone Valley team remaining.

“I’m just happy we got through it, win this game and go to regionals,” said Zamarripa, who had four 3-pointers on the night. “We’re really looking at state right now.”

A place Cipriano says is up to the Warriors, who advanced to the Final Four three years ago, to get there.

“We’ll take it one game at a time,” he said. “See what happens.”